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Wasps away is always a hard affair tho I don't think they will be missing that many players to the autumn internationals, but they do have a growing injury list so I guess it might be a good time to play them.

Gloucester at home should be a good hard fought contest, the fact we are at home should give us an advantage.

Northampton away is always a tough place to go but with quite a few, if not all their internationals players returned the week before I see them winning, I expect them to play the strongest side possible.

OsricTakalua and Harris, surely, with Sam Stuart and MM on the bench. I'd also have Sinoti on the bench with Hammers at fb and Alex T on the wing.
As predicted by many, we need fit or stronger props as Jon W and Bobby can't do all the heavy lifting.

I would like to see Goneva on one wing and pure pace on the other to contrast. Bring on Sinoti from the bench with 20 mins to go and they are tired. Harris has done nothing wrong altough could be absent for a few weeks. Give Mermoz a couple of games in the AW cup. I don't think he is fully up to speed yet to be honest.

For what it's worth I would like to Mermoz and Van Der Merve given some game time during the AWC. If either are to play a role in our league campaign then the sooner they are bought up to match speed the better.

DJMcFor what it's worth I would like to Mermoz and Van Der Merve given some game time during the AWC. If either are to play a role in our league campaign then the sooner they are bought up to match speed the better.

I'm not into player bashing but feel Sinoti is a bit of a laibility in defence recently. He's often not in the right place drops high ball and misses tackles. He needs more time in the A league to shine and justify his selection imo. Flood didn't do anything for me against tigers and would bring Willis back in.

Xanderman
Flood didn't do anything for me against tigers and would bring Willis back in.

I agree I think he was very unlucky to be left out altogether against Tigers unless he had an injury

Everybody seemed delighted to have Flood coming back to Newcastle Falcons. He has hardly had any game time due to injury, when he does finally make a Premiership start in a difficult game and not too surprisingly isn't fully up to speed with the Falcons game, he is binned by some on here as a waste of space.

Flood has to be starting for me. As Monkey said, he has hardly had any game time yet showed glimpses of his undoubted ability against Leicester. Wouldn't be surprised if he featured against Cardiff to set himself up for the Premiership.

I never said anything about being binned or a waste of space Monkey, I've always been of the opinion that if a player doesn't perform they get rotated. Can you honestly say that was a coherent performance against Leicester? As i've said i'm not into player bashing so won't go into detail but personally my opinion is that Willis should start after that performance.

It depends on the reason for the player not performing. If he is not up to speed due to a lack of game time, then he must have more game time, not be taken off the starting 15 yet again. That is madness. As NF said, starting him against Cardiff would probably reap benefits.

My own opinion, for what it's worth, is that Toby never fully recovered from the late hit he took early in the game. So a week off this week and back in the saddle next week will hopefully see him right.

Monkey 1 Don't put words in my mouth I haven't "binned him as a waste of space" - I base my view on what I've seen this season, Willis should be the starting 10 in league games, for me the whole team looks more dynamic with Willis, at 10, and what did he do to deserve not even getting a seat on the bench?

trummy200What goes round comes round.
I did not see any of the game against Wasps but on their site a post says that Hodgson in particular made the difference when the substitutions came on

It's an A-league game I wouldn't read too much into it, Flood will more than likely start against wasps, tho the pack need to protect him a lot better. Flood took two very very late hits and was targeted during the game.

Am I really reading that Noah is getting a tough time despite being in the mould of the established and top class ten we have been craving for a few years now ?

I thought his movement and distribution during the Leicester game was a sight to behold. The way the game panned out he was part of a fantastic response by our guys when Leicester were hitting their straps.

Great news that Jon Welsh has been called back into the Scotland squad (well overdue in my opinion) but this does leave us in a bit of a front row pickle for this weekend. We are gonna have to rely on either Scott or Davy Wilson to fill that TH void and it's a big ask with both just coming back from injuries and with very little game time. I feel it could be a long hard shift. Even tho we haven't lost much on our own put in the no8 always seem to be on the back foot of late and not getting a good platform to attack off and I'm sure wasps till target the scrum on the weekend.

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